Asia stocks: Japan slips, Hong Kong logs gain

Nikkei up nearly 2% for week

By

DanielInman

Asian markets were mixed on Friday, with Hong Kong edging higher, while Australia gave up a large chunk of the hefty gains it made in the previous session.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200
XJO, -0.22%
lost 0.9% to 5,419.50, giving up more than half of the 1.6% rise it enjoyed on Thursday in light of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s commitment to low interest rates and Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s relatively upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy.

The positive tone seen in the previous session was short-lived, with broad-based selling on low volumes, as the index remained pressured by a high exchange rate and low commodity prices.

Japan’s Nikkei
NIK, -0.33%
, the other market to surge on Thursday, made a more moderate loss — ending down 0.1% at 15,349.42. The yen
USDJPY, +0.03%
was steady in Asian trade, last changing hands at ¥101.92 to the dollar compared with ¥101.94 late Thursday in New York.

Thursday’s Japanese stocks were the best performers in Asia this week, with Tokyo gaining 1.7% since the previous Friday.

The sharp gains in the Nikkei Average, which closed at a near five-month high on Thursday, reflect a favorable view among global investors of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s corporate-tax cut and other structural changes being rolled out this month. Abe is set to formally release his growth strategy as soon as Tuesday.

Preliminary manufacturing data from China, scheduled for release on Monday, in recent months have supported a view that the Chinese economy has hit its trough. Société Générale expects a third successive increase in the gauge, to 49.7 from 49.4. A figure below 50 indicates a contraction in the sector, while above 50 signals expansion.

In China, stocks were slightly higher ahead of the data, with the Hang Seng Index
HSI, +0.05%
up 0.1% in Hong Kong to 23,194.06, and the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, +0.06%
up 0.2% to 2,026.67.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, -0.26%
fell 1.2% to 1,968.07, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index
STI, -0.12%
was down 0.2% in late trading.

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